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How Safe Is Soy Milk For Lactose Intolerance Patient?

Posted on Thu, 8 Sep 2016

Question: my son who is now 12 weeks old is diagnosed with lactose intolerance. he is having a greenish liquid poo soon after breastfeed with heavy gatric sound. currently he is advised to take lactose free soy based based milk powder(zerolac) with breastfeed limited. Is it ok to continue this. what could be the cause of this and what is the permanent cure for this

Answered by Dr. Diptanshu Das (4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Soy based milk can be given without worrying

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.

Let me emphasize on the fact that breast milk is the best possible milk for a baby and there can be no alternatives for the same. For a baby of this age, it is normal to pass stool several times a day or even after each feed. Alternatively the child may pass stool once in 10 days and that is normal too. The green colour occurs due to rapid transit through large intestine where the bile pigments do not get adequate time to convert to the yellow colour of stool. It is OK for some mucus to be there in the stool.

Usually we do not advise cessation of beras feeding in case of lactose intolerance. However, it would be acceptable to give soy based milk and it should not be a cause for concern.

Lactose intolerance occurs when the enzyme for digestion of milk is missing. You cannot outgrow it. It is there for life.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Diptanshu Das (6 hours later)

only thing I was worried was too much of liquid was there in his stool, sometimes foamy as well and a loud gastric sound when he passes. His activeness came down a bit.
Now he is in the diet of 2 scoops of zerolac powder in 60ml water twice followed by once breastfeed. From yesterday evening till now he passed stool only twice, greenish yellow in colour and liquid content reduced. Seems to be an improvement and he looks slightly more active as well.
But how long can we continue like this. Will the enzyme deficiency get rectified automatically?

Answered by Dr. Diptanshu Das (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
I will still insist you to try to come back to breast feeding.

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for writing back. I understand that the stool was watery and that the liquid content has come down. But still I would suggest staying on breast feeding. Zerolac can be given but it can never match the benefits of breast milk.

If there is enzyme deficiency, it will not get rectified at all. You need not try to do anything about it.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Diptanshu Das (3 minutes later)

thanks for your quick response.

So do you mean when the situation improves, we should go back to breastfeed alone even if there is watery green stool now and then?

Answered by Dr. Diptanshu Das (14 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Do not refrain from breast feeding at all.

Detailed Answer:
Thanks again for writing back. My suggestion is not to refrain from breast milk at all (even now, irrespective of watery greenish stool). Breast milk contains the enzymes required for its own digestion and does not cause problems in lactose intolerant babies. Please go through the following links:
http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetails.aspx?p=114&np=302&id=1787
https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/lactose.html

Let me know if I could help further.

Regards

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar